Horrific Confession and Question

I think you are all missing his point.It is my personal opinion that as human beings we vary in our ability to handle multiple sensory input simultaneously. I have found personally that I enjoy just as much if not more than my reference system (30K all tube system)the sound of my cheap panasonic CD/clock radio playing in the background when I am focused on my work (reading, writing). In ophthalmology this phenomena is well documented in the literature whith regard to visual perception in the midst of competeing stimuli(auditory etc.) Ever wonder why you turn down your car radio when looking for a particular street in the dark? Certainly we all appreciate the value of a dark room in critical listening. I suspect that less resolute sound is less demanding on the sensorium as suggested. Just my opinion.

I agree with Petland, and would add that a person becomes more forgiving of the sound quality they experience cerebrally if the music jams. This occurs especially when your doing somethign else and groovin' at the same time. I was listening to U2's New York concert on my alarm/radio (no tuner on the big rig) while cleaning, and thought it was great. But, in the end, BOSE DOES suck. So does my radio.

I know I will be crusafied for this but I dont think Bose is that bad. Especially when compared to other mass market products. I think you can do a lot better for the money in a high end store but there good for what they are.

Petland has a point. I have music playing in my outside work office all the time. It sounds great in there even thought the system if bought new would be under $500. I figure if it sounded really good I would be constantly distracted and would get no work done. Also since it is cheap I hope it won't get stolen. I have tweeked the cheap system a little with decent interconnects and a inexpensive Monster power conditioner. For notes the cheap work system and "what I paid used" is: Boston Acoustic HD5v Speakers ($50); Electrobrand full function FM/AM mini receiver (Taiwan) ($20); Fisher AD-235 Single CD Player ($20); CD Player connected with MIT PC Squared Interconnects ($25). Speaker connected with standard 16 AWG speaker wire ($10 new). So that's my workplace system for the price of a boombox ($125 total).

Oh, the Monster power conditioner is a Stage 1 filtered HT400 that I paid $20 new on a clearance sale. So that makes the whole system $145. It sounds quite good considering.